Figure 2

Connective tissue in the lamina propria of theolfactory system in vivo expresses calponin. Sections of olfactory mucosa were immunolabeled with antibodies to connective tissue and glia together with calponin and visualized using confocal microscopy. A, B) Calponin immunoreactivity was associated with markers of connective tissue fibroblast-like cells, Fn (red) and α-SMA (red). Dashed area represents the central part of the LP associated with α-SMA immunoreactivity and the arrow indicates the area adjacent to the basal part of the OE. C, D) To identify connective tissue, sections were immunolabeled with α-SMA and Fn together with p75^NTR. OECs (p75^NTR-green) did not express α-SMA. Figure 2E is a higher magnification Figure 2C. F) Double immunofluorescence with both connective tissue markers Fn and α-SMA. The α-SMA positive cells, located mainly in the central part of the LP, do no colocalise with Fn, that is intensively expressed in the boundary between LP and OE. G) Similar staining patterns were obtained when proteinase K was excluded from the protocol. H) No tissue staining occurred in control sections when the primary antibody was excluded (DAPI, blue).